Senegal Migrant Boat Wreck Death Toll Reaches 42
Dakar: The total fatalities from a major migrant vessel capsizing off Senegal's northwest coast climbed to 42 on Wednesday, authorities in Dakar confirmed. The migrants shipwrecked off the country's coast on Friday.
In Senegal, where a large percentage of youth struggle to find meaningful employment, reaching Europe is seen as a jackpot.
Thousands of would-be migrants from West Africa have died recently trying to reach Spain's Canary Islands from West Africa.
"The latest dead bodies drifted towards the Saint-Louis region (in the northwest), on the beach in the town of Gandiol", the region's fire commander, Amadou Fall, told AFP.
All weekend, emergency services have discovered bodies washed up on the beaches of the coastal region.
As of Wednesday afternoon the numbers had risen to "43 victims, including 42 dead bodies and one survivor", Fall said.
"Search and rescue operations continue," he added.
A medical-psychological emergency cell had been dispatched to assist responding personnel and victims' parents, he said.
AFP journalists saw the migrants' rickety pirogue broken in two and severely damaged on a deserted stretch of coastline in the village of Thieppe earlier this week.
The victims were from the region, particularly Thieppe and the village of Potou.
Senegal's navy told AFP on Wednesday it had intercepted more than 1,500 would-be migrants at sea or along the coast in the past two weeks alone.
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